Amp to get for marshall sound in a bed room setting

I have spent quite a bit of time learning how to make my Marshall DSL15C and Marshall DSL20CR combo sound good with just an SM57, recording in my one-bedroom apartment. I can get away with volume on 4, which is not bad for recording, when most of the neighbors are at work. With an SM57 on the cap edge, right on the grille, I get typical modern metal tones reminiscent of recent Sneap-produced albums for Priest and Saxon, as well as tones similar to those found on Maiden's A Matter of Life and Death. Just make sure the speaker is broken in. If not, you'll keep running into issues with fizz at the cap-edge position until the speaker has been broken in. Also, if you go for a combo, get also a 1x12" closed-back extension cab with a good speaker in it. Closed-back is key, however. With open-back combos, some of the low-end escapes through the back and the speaker moves more due to having more air, which results in an open, airy, softer tone, with more woofiness/less tightness in the low end. If you want the Marshall sound of heavy rock and metal, I think a closed-back extension cab is indispensable and will save you the trouble of having to double-mike or being disappointed with the softer tone if you opt for just one mic in the front.

I just recently tried running my 100 Watt 6100LM all-tube head into a Marshall 1x12" MXR112R extension cab with a Vintage 30 in it. I did this with volume on 1 to avoid damaging the speaker. The result was not that great. Very bassy and muffled, even with the Bass control turned way down.
 
Last edited:
I know this may be a silly question, but surely with any chain of audio products, the final result is the way the combination works? If you change any component, or how that component is setup, the end result changes from the original. Are we not saying we want that great tasting recipe, but we need to cook at a lower temperature and get the same taste? Surely if you want the sound of a Marshall amp and cab working hard, it just isn't going to work at anything other than the right volume - unless you build a soundproof box, and put the cab and mic in it. It's quite common on stadium gigs to have a guitar cab and a mic inside a flight case, for repeatability - same sound, every gig, no matter how different the stage acoustics are? A speaker and a microphone BOTH introduce changes to sound as they work within their volume envelopes.
 
I know this may be a silly question, but surely with any chain of audio products, the final result is the way the combination works? If you change any component, or how that component is setup, the end result changes from the original. Are we not saying we want that great tasting recipe, but we need to cook at a lower temperature and get the same taste? Surely if you want the sound of a Marshall amp and cab working hard, it just isn't going to work at anything other than the right volume - unless you build a soundproof box, and put the cab and mic in it. It's quite common on stadium gigs to have a guitar cab and a mic inside a flight case, for repeatability - same sound, every gig, no matter how different the stage acoustics are? A speaker and a microphone BOTH introduce changes to sound as they work within their volume envelopes.

No in the LEAST silly Rob! If we take an all valve signal chain the first triode will likely never get driven hard enough to produce noticable distortion. Even with a "booster" pedal* you will only just get it distorting (assuming a 9V supply). The next triode however will get hit pretty hard and its output distorted but. You can have TOO much! You can also have too much at the "wrong" part of the frequency spectrum. Even a very basic guitar amp usually has some "voicing" components in the signal chain. A treble boost cap or three. The tone stack of course. The gains between the various stage AND the response tweaks therein, modify how the OD sound er, SOUNDS! Cap network then distort? Distort a cap network? Bit of both?

Marshalls also have a tone stack stage as a rule consisting of a DC coupled triode section to a cathode follower. This circuit is both crude and "wrong" but it contributes greatly to the "Marshall sound". Copied from Leo of course!

Move on to the PI and one configuration (of several possible) dominates guitar amps circuitry and the design is very clean and almost impossible to overdrive. And yes Rob, large signal sound will always be different to a "bee in a tin". You can get close but never a cigar.
Contrary to guitamp lore, it is virtually impossible to "saturate" an OP transformer (and if you did the valves would melt if an HT fuse did not blow) . Transformers will have their own tone to a degree. Their inductance and inter-winding capacitances will be different brand to brand, also the quality of the steel MIGHT have an effect but I doubt it.

*N.B. As soon as you introduce Tube Screamers and their ilk, valve cork sniffery goes out the window! They use fekking Transistors!

BTW interested parties might like Merlin Blencowe's Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass. The math is not even "A" level and don't worry, "Tube" in only in the title for our colonial friends. Inside he talks properly, i.e about "valves"!

Dave.
 
Why not just go with a Kemper or an Axe Fx you will have Eric Johnson exact sound. I am sure there are patches and profiles for it.
 
Why not just go with a Kemper or an Axe Fx you will have Eric Johnson exact sound. I am sure there are patches and profiles for it.

Now then! Celestion have produced the F12-X200 a 12" speaker rated at 200W and 95dB sensitivity. It has full range capability and is designed to replace conventional guitar 12s in cabs and combos for reproducing the emulated sounds of modellers.

Reviewed in SoS Aug 2019.

Dave.
 
Back
Top